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Americas, First Ladies, Number ¨3¨ Martha Jefferson!


Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson was born on October 19, 1748 O.S. at her fathers plantation in Charles City County, Virginia. After the death of her first husband two years into their marriage, she returned to her parents home with their young son. A few years later, Thomas Jefferson courted the 22 -year-old widow, and they shared an interest in horseback,riding, literature, and music. 

They were married on New Year´s Day, 1772 💥 The cermony took place at the Bride´s plantation home.

Their daughter Martha was born in September 1772, but only Patsy and Polly lived to adulthood. Martha´s health weakened due the physical strain of frequent pregnancies, and she died in 1782 after giving birth to their last child. Despite their happy-ten marriage, Jefferson couldn´t bring himself to record their life together. Half a century later, his daughter remembered his sorrow over her mothers death.



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Martha Jefferson was apparently talented in music! A Hessian officer who visted Jefferson at Monticello in 1780 noted: ¨You will find in this houses an elegant Harpsichord Piano fort and some Violins. The latter he performs well upon himself, the former his Lady touches very skillfully and who, is in all Repects a agreeable Sensible and Accomplished Lady.¨

The harpsichord is a keyboard instrument which the strings are plucked rather that hit with a hammer! The distinguish sound of an harpsichord creates almost immediate association with a baroque era.



Before her death in September 1782, Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson copied the lines of Laurence Sterne´s Tristam Shandy. One of four documents in Martha´s hand known to survive, this incomplete quotation was completed by Jefferson, transforming the passage into a dialogue between husband and wife:


¨Nay if even in the house of Hades the dead forget their dead, yet will I even there be mindful of my dear comrade.¨


Below the Greek inscription, the tombstone slimply reads:


To the memory of Martha Jefferson!


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